Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean was talking to Canadian radio station CJAD-AM but the interview ended when the car carrying Dean was hit by another car.

Said Dean: "We just got hit by a car, sorry. I'm going to have to goodbye, say goodbye. Everybody's fine... going to be a bit of a struggle."

No "Dean Scream" this time though. He saves that for political crashes. The radio station has the audio here.

4.45pm: Nothing much in the way of substance appears to have come out of President Obama's bipartisan meeting with congressional leadership, via AP:

The White House and John Boehner's office described Wednesday's rare bipartisan gathering as cordial. Also at the meeting was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and two Democratic lawmakers: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The president tried to add a friendly touch to the lunchtime gathering by picking up sandwiches from a local deli where he held an event earlier in the day. While the sandwiches may not have helped produce agreement, Boehner's office said the speaker was "very pleased" with the sandwiches.

(For the record, the sandwiches were from Taylor Gourmet's branch in DC's sexy 14th St NW district. Meh, the food at Cork Market is better.)

4.30pm: The Wisconsin recall election appears to be moving in favour of incumbent Scott Walker and away from Democratic challenger Tom Barrett, based on the latest polling:

The survey shows Walker leading Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett 50% to 44% among likely recall voters. In the school's previous poll in late April, Barrett led Walker 47% to 46% among all registered voters.

Walker also has a significant advantage over the Milwaukee mayor in the poll's favorability ratings. Among all registered voters, 50% said they have a favorable opinion of Walker, while 45% said they have an unfavorable opinion. Thirty-seven percent of registered voters said they have a favorable opinion of Barrett, while 45% said they have an unfavorable opinion of the Democrat.

The barrage of negative ads attacking Barrett appear to have dented his ratings.

3.55pm:Dennis Kucinich – the one-time Democratic presidential aspirant and mayor of Cleveland – will not be running for election in Washington state, ending his career in Congress.

In a statement this afternoon, Kucinch said he had decided not to run for Congress in Washington state, having earlier lost the Democratic primary for his seat in Ohio, which changed boundaries after redistricting:

After careful consideration and discussions with Elizabeth and my closest friends, I have decided that, at this time, I can best serve from outside the Congress. My commitments to peace, to workers' rights and to social and economic justice are constant and are not dependent upon holding an office. They are dependent upon my continuing to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to motivate and to inspire our nation as to its deeper potential. This I promise I will do with great energy and heart.

3.32pm: A rare victory for marijuana activists, as Oregon last night elected a pro-medical marijuana retired judge as the Democratic nominee for attorney general.

Ellen Rosenblum, a former Oregon Court of Appeals judge, defeated former US Attorney Dwight Holton, who criticised Oregon's medical marijuana law and approved raids on marijuana growers. NPR reports:

The Attorney General's race took another unexpected twist this year when medical marijuana groups poured money into Rosenblum's campaign. Holton's campaign accused the former state judge of cutting a deal to look the other way on enforcing marijuana laws if she won.

Since there is no Republican candidate running against her, Rosenblum looks likely to be Oregon's first woman attorney general.

2.51pm: Just on the off chance that Mitt Romney doesn't win the 2012 election, prepare to meet America's 45th president: Rand Paul.

Yes, the son of Ron Paul is already being talked about as a 2016 candidate, after a speech that Rand gave in Iowa recently. "Make no mistake," writes an op-ed author in the Louisville Courier-Journal, "Rand Paul is preparing to run for president in 2016. He is readying himself regardless of whether Romney beats President Barack Obama in November."

The piece continues:

Paul's speech was also witty, literate and less strident than many on the right can manage. His opening joke drew real laughs. He invoked Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. His easygoing manner is a welcome contrast to his dad's scolding lectures. In terms of both substance and style, Paul is proving himself to be as ready for the big time as any of the other 2016 hopefuls.

Should Mitt Romney stumble, the buzz among Paul watchers is that Senator Paul will run for the White House in 2016, looking to build upon his father's success.

2.18pm: The Federal Reserve's interest rate-setting committee has released the minutes of its last meeting, at the end of last month. Amidst all the talk about the economy, there was also this discussion about the impact of the political battle over the federal budget:

Participants expected that the government sector would be a drag on economic growth over coming quarters. They generally saw the US fiscal situation also as a risk to the economic outlook; if agreement is not reached on a plan for the federal budget, a sharp fiscal tightening could occur at the start of 2013. Several participants indicated that uncertainty about the trajectory of future fiscal policy could lead businesses to defer hiring and investment. It was noted that agreement on a longer-term plan to address the country's fiscal challenges would help to alleviate uncertainty and consequent negative effects on consumer and business sentiment.

1.50pm: The Associated Press has some fun facts regarding Mitt Romney's decision not to compete in his home state, Massachusetts, in the presidential election campaign:

If Romney defeats Obama while losing Massachusetts, he would be the first presidential candidate elected without carrying his home state since before the Civil War. James K Polk lost Tennessee en route to the White House — 168 years ago.

In 2000, Democrat Al Gore, who had spent years in Washington as a senator and vice president, fell short of winning Tennessee in his losing White House bid. Other notable home-state losers include Democrats Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota in 1968 and Adlai Stevenson of Illinois in 1952 and 1956. Republicans need to go back to 1936 to find a nominee who didn't carry his home state: Kansas Governor Alf Landon.

Adlai Stevenson, Alf Landon – that's some company that Romney would be keeping.

1.15pm: Oh no, here we go again. Remember how fantastic and productive the battle over increasing the US federal debt ceiling was? John Boehner does:

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner drew an election-year battle line over the US borrowing limit on Tuesday, saying he would back another increase at year-end only if it was offset by a larger package of spending cuts.

Drawing quick fire from President Barack Obama's Democrats, Boehner said he would "insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase."

The "simple principle" at play, more likely, is that Boehner is feeling heat from the Tea Party wing of the GOP, angry at the slow progress and making him vulnerable to challenge in 2013.

From the same set of comments, enjoy Boehner's grasp of rigorous logic as displayed here:

He told the fiscal forum that that tax reforms would "bring everybody's rates down," but cleaning out the "underbrush" of tax deductions and credits could cause some Americans to pay more in taxes than they do now.

Yes that makes sense: taxes will go down for everyone except those people whose taxes go up.

This also supports the theory that Mitt Romney can say strange things when he goes off script. Caveat to previous theory: this clip is from 2007, and Romney's got better at buttoning his lip since then – although as his $10,000 bet/gaffe in the Republican debates shows, there's still work to do.

Scarcity-driven German technical ingenuity during the World Wars was pretty remarkable, but it may be best not to praise that.

12.10pm: The defence has wrapped up at John Edwards's trial in North Carolina, AP reports:

John Edwards' defense team rested Wednesday without calling the two-time Democratic presidential candidate or his one-time mistress to the witness stand, a sign of confidence after presenting little more than two days of testimony and evidence.

The defense called a series of witnesses aimed at shifting the jury's focus from the lurid details of a political sex scandal to the legal question of whether the Edwards' actions violated federal campaign finance laws.

12pm:George Bush made headlines yesterday with his low-key endorsement of Mitt Romney – delivered through the closing doors of an elevator.

They posed for pictures as the audience clapped, and when they were done, Bush glanced around as if unsure what to do next.

He walked back to his seat, but then quickly walked back onto the stage and behind the lectern. He leaned forward into the microphone, paused, and said slyly, "Thanks for coming."

Bush waited a second or two. Then he said, "See ya later."

He waved, and then he left.

11.30am: Daniel Larison, the well-regarded if controversial conservative writer and blogger, is not so impressed by Mitt Romney's chances in November:

Romney is a pro-bailout corporatist with a reputation for phoniness and dishonesty. He embodies everything that people claim not to like about how the country is being governed, and he seems to be out of his depth on issues of national security. He's a hybrid of the worst traits of Nixon and Dukakis.

The ring-leader was a Republican delegate Bob Marshall – nicknamed "Sideshow Bob" by his colleagues – who the normally sober Post describes as "an avowed homophobe", aided by a conservative outfit known as the Family Foundation.

Equality Virginia, the state's LGBT advocacy group, said that "fear mongering and shrill personal attacks" derailed Thorne-Begland's nomination "simply because he is an out gay man":

Virginians pride themselves in believing we are a top tier state but our General Assembly is an embarrassment. As long as it allows special interest groups like the Family Foundation to lead policies the majority of Virginians don't support, we will continue to make national headlines for all of the wrong reasons.

10.42am:Mitt Romney's personal popularity ratings are improving the further away we get from the school of hard knocks that was the Republican presidential primary. But what of his policies?

ABC News notes that – while hugely popular with Republicans – support for dismantling Obama's healthcare reforms is not as enthusiastic with the rest of the electorate as the Romney campaign might assume:

Support for repealing the Obama administration's signature health care reform law is split down the middle – 40% favorable to 40% unfavorable.

Notably, more independents view Romney's pledge to repeal "Obamacare" unfavorably by a 47% to 33% margin and these voters are about evenly split on the former Massachusetts governor's tax plan.

10.20am: American politics isn't exactly awash with laughs so we should be grateful for this – a spoof video made by New Jersey governor Chris Christie and Newark mayor Cory Booker.

Even though this is a spoof, does this actually hurt Christie's chances of getting the VP slot? Overthinking.

10am: Money – raising it and spending it – is the dominant story of the day, with news that President Obama's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised more than $43m last month, while Karl Rove's super Pac aims to spend $25m in the next month on ads

Here is a summary of overnight news from Ryan Devereaux.

President Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised $43.6m in April. The total is down from March, when $53m was raised. Over 437,000 people donated last month, more than 169,000 for the first time. Campaign manager Jim Messina announced the new figures in a video launched on Wednesday morning.

Crossroads GPS, a Republican super Pac, is to launch a month-long $25m advertising campaign challenging Obama in 10 states. On Thursday the group is expected to open its efforts with an $8m TV campaign attempting to use the president's own words on the economy against him. The ads will run in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Romney was campaigning in Iowa on Tuesday, where he likened the growth of federal spending and debt under the Obama administration to a fast-moving fire threatening the livelihood of midwestern families. Romney said: "A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation, and every day we fail to act that fire gets closer to the homes and children we love." In other scary language, Romney called the debt crisis an "inferno" and referred to a mortgage "nightmare".

About this article

Obama campaign raises $43m in April – US politics live

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 17.01 EDT on Wednesday 16 May 2012.
It was last modified at 10.29 EDT on Monday 13 October 2014.
It was first published at 09.56 EDT on Wednesday 16 May 2012.